The real question is what kind of job Obama wants his next secretary
of defense to do. I have no inside knowledge on this, but judging from
some of his actions and remarks on matters of national defense, Hagel
seems to be the right choice. And that’s what disturbs the most
outspoken Hagel-resisters.

These resisters have four main concerns. They fear that Hagel will
cut the military budget. They fear that he’ll roll over if Iran builds a
nuclear weapon. They fear that he’s too reluctant to use military force
generally. And they fear he doesn’t much like Israel; the extremists on
this point claim he’s anti-Semitic.

Kaplan then discusses these points, and finds they're all nonsense.

Let’s look at the real issues. Hagel is a former two-term
Republican senator. He won two Purple Hearts as an infantry squad leader
in Vietnam. No one could possibly dispute his devotion to the country,
its security, or its armed forces. But he is a pragmatist, and there may
be the rub. What Republicans seem to fear most is that by appointing
Hagel as secretary of defense, Obama can claim a false bipartisanship in
his national-security team. In fact, these critics say Hagel does not
reflect the values or positions of the Republican Party; his presence in
Cabinet meetings would not constitute real bipartisanship.

If that is true, the real problem is with the present-day Republican
Party. It’s often said that today’s GOP wouldn’t nominate Ronald Reagan
for president. By the same token, much of its leadership would rail
against Robert Gates for secretary of defense.

For once, Kaplan is right. Also, let's not forget that the real reason the Republican party will fight Chuck Hagel as Pentagon head is the fact that Barack Obama is the one nominating him. President Obama could nominate anyone -- even a Republican, mind you -- and they would be shot down.

Republicans are going to block anything the President tries to do, and then cry "DICTATORSHIP!" when the President is forced to use executive orders and recess appointments to do anything at all. That certainly didn't change just because the President, you know, won the election.

Rand Paul’s office issued a brief statement: “Sen. Paul is a
national public figure and subject to scrutiny in the public arena.
However, as many parents with teenagers would understand, his family
should be afforded the privacy and respect they deserve in a situation
such as this.”

Really? He's legally over 18 and doing a drunk and disorderly in an airport at ten in the morning. That's 60 to 120 days in jail and a suspended license for a year on just the underage charge, plus the D&D. Now, nobody expects a US senator's son to end up in the Mecklenburg County jail for two months, but you know, isn't that a states' rights issue, as both Rand and Ron Paul have said?

Should get interesting if the charges aren't dismissed outright. He's still the son of a senator. Not exactly subject to the laws their parents write, you know.

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With Republicans controlling the House and Senate and the Trump Regime now in charge of the Executive, there's still a crumbling global economy imperiling the world, rising nationalism and deadly racism across Europe and Asia, a seemingly endless war against terror, a federal government nobody trusts or believes in, global climate change putting us on the brink of destruction and a Village media that barely does its job on even the best day.

Needless to say there's a lot of Stupid out there when we need solutions. Dangerous levels of Stupid.

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